Wireless access networks, such as the Long Term Evolution and Long Term Evolution-Advanced by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), WiMAX, variants of IEEE 802.11, and so forth, have allowed users to connect to a wide range of packet data networks (PDN) after the user's communications device (commonly referred to as User Equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), terminal, access terminal, and so on) attaches to the wireless access network. For example, after the UE attaches to the wireless access network, the UE may attach to a PDN, such as a corporate network, the Internet, a multimedia messaging system (MMS), or other networks.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art communications network 100. Communications network 100 includes an access network 105, for example, a 3GPP access network. Access network 105 may include a wireless access network 107 and a core network 109. Wireless access network 107 may include a plurality of communications controllers, such as NodeBs, enhanced NodeBs, base stations, base terminal stations, access points, and so forth, that may be used to control communications to and from UE attached to access network 105. Core network 109 may include components that may be responsible for ensuring network operation, such as mobility management entities (MME), serving gateways (SGW), an authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) server, and PDN gateways (PDN GW).
Communications network 100 also includes a UE 110 that may be attached to access network 105. UE 110 may utilize access network 105 to connect to one or more PDNs, such as a corporate network (PDN #1) 115, the Internet (PDN #2) 117, a MMS (PDN #3) 119, or so on. For each additional PDN connection, a PDN GW, part of the access network's core network, creates a binding cache entry for the UE and based on the binding cache entry, the UE may either be allocated an additional Internet Protocol (IP) address or prefix. With an address (IP address or prefix) assigned, an IP session tunnel may be established between a mobile access gateway (MAG) and the PDN GW so that the UE's IP traffic from the connected PDN may be routed to the UE.
For example, when UE 110 is connected to PDN #1 (corporate network 115), a first access point name (APN) 120 may be created to route IP traffic between UE 110 and PDN #1, while when UE 110 is connected to PDN #2 (the Internet 117), a second APN 122 may be created to route IP traffic between UE 110 and PDN #2. Because distinct APNs are used for each connection, each APN may be assigned a different name; for example, first APN 120 may be referred to as APN #1 and second APN 122 may be referred to as APN #2. Since each connection between UE 110 and a PDN utilizes a unique APN, a distinct binding cache entry is required for each connection.